Turkey is in ardent preparation for the elections that are scheduled to take place in June next year.

As this week’s NATO summit in Madrid approaches, the alliance faces another tough test. Turkey, however, faces an even tougher one. Ankara has to decide whether it should insist on using its veto to prevent the admission of two Nordic countries — Sweden and Finland — to NATO.

The Ukrainian crisis continues to dominate the international agenda. Its origins go back to 2008, when the US launched an initiative to open the way for the former Soviet countries — especially Ukraine and Georgia — to join NATO.

Russia’s relations with NATO have been wobbling for several years. Moscow’s annexation of Crimea in 2014 and the ongoing Ukraine crisis have further exacerbated the situation. However, independently from these two crises, the tensions continue to grow.

European Council Chairman Charles Michel invited Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan to a meeting on the sidelines of the EU Eastern Partnership summit held last week in Brussels.